binnovel Chapter 30 Getting ready to leave
Chapter 30 Getting ready to leave
At three in the morning, Li Chenglong woke up and turned on the solar-powered rechargeable bedside lamp beside him. He carefully covered Yunlan with the blanket, put on his clothes, turned off the light, and slowly walked out and locked the door. At this moment, Yunlan on the bed opened her eyes, seemingly lost in thought, before closing them again after a while.
Li Chenglong went downstairs. A makeshift mourning hall had already been set up in the town office compound. The bodies of the fifty-two people who died or were killed in the attack on the camp were laid out there. Yun Qian was still directing some minor tasks. Seeing Li Chenglong come down, she jogged over: "Team Leader Li, our farewell ceremony is basically ready." Li Chenglong nodded: "Thank you for your hard work. I'll keep an eye on things here for a while. You should go and rest." Then Li Chenglong walked slowly past each body. Next to each body was an A4 sheet containing the person's information. He carefully read everyone's information, then sat down on the ground and began to ponder.
By 8:00 AM, the office compound was already packed with people, mainly over 500 soldiers and security personnel. Some survivors stood to the side, but most of the survivors spontaneously formed two lines and stood on either side of the street in front of the town office compound. Some of those who had lost loved ones in the incident wept bitterly, causing those around them to have red eyes and almost shed tears as well.
Suddenly, three cannon salutes rang out. Li Chenglong stood on the makeshift platform and announced, "I hereby declare the memorial ceremony open. I will now read the list of those who perished: Zhang Zhiqiang, Platoon Leader of the First Platoon, Second Company; Dong Feng, Deputy Platoon Leader of the First Platoon, Second Company; Qi Long, Squad Leader of the Second Squad, First Platoon, Third Company..." Li Chenglong slowly read out the names of the martyrs and survivors who died in this battle. After reading them, Li Chenglong paused and continued, "Now we will proceed to the second item. Please have the base's main leaders and representatives of the masses walk around all the victims to bid them farewell." Zheng Yong and his group of more than thirty people also walked around each of the victims to say goodbye.
After everyone returned to their positions, Li Chenglong activated his supernatural ability again, making his voice audible to everyone: "Please all stand and observe three minutes of silence. The honor guard will then fire 52 salvos." During the three minutes of silence, three electronic cannons fired simultaneously, firing a total of 52 salvos. "The moment of silence is over!" Li Chenglong continued, "We are holding this memorial service today so that everyone will remember them. Please don't forget that our peaceful and happy lives were achieved through their sacrifice. At the same time, on behalf of all the soldiers of the Dawn Army, I swear that we will work even harder to protect our home and everyone in it." The hall erupted in enthusiastic applause, and Li Chenglong stepped down from the podium.
Zheng Yong stepped onto the stage and solemnly said, "May our heroes rest in peace!" Each martyr's body was lifted by four soldiers and slowly placed onto a military vehicle, with four bodies on each vehicle. Then, another cannon salute was fired. Zheng Aiguo and Hao Dahai led the way in their vehicles. A dozen military vehicles, watched by the crowd, slowly drove out of the office compound and towards the temporarily chosen cemetery. Li Xue, with tears in her eyes, walked up to Li Chenglong: "Brother, when we win, I want to erect a monument for these people." Li Chenglong gently patted Li Xue's back: "You definitely will!"
An hour later, everyone had dispersed, and the farewell party returned. Wu Gang and Zheng Aiguo had just arrived at the base when they received a report that they needed to attend a meeting. Upon entering the meeting room, they found it almost full. The meeting was personally chaired by Li Chenglong. Seeing that all the leaders of the Dawn Army, from the highest to the lowest, as well as the base's various supervisors, were present, Li Chenglong began, "We suffered very heavy losses this time. Besides our relatively weak strength, another very important reason is that Qing'an Town is flat and easy to attack but difficult to defend, putting great pressure on our garrison."
As Li Chenglong spoke, he took out a blueprint that shimmered with white light from his storage ring: "This is the blueprint for Dawn City. Once the conditions are met, Dawn City will be automatically constructed. Dawn City is a perfect circle with a diameter of 10 kilometers. The city walls are made of a special alloy, up to 1.5 meters thick, and there are watchtowers and troop storage areas every 200 meters along the walls. There are four entrances in the east, west, south, and north. There are also various outposts and battle points." Zheng Yong immediately exclaimed excitedly, "Such a wonderful thing! Captain Li, what are the activation conditions for Dawn City?" Li Chenglong nodded: "Three cyan crystals and ten green crystals are enough to activate a level one Dawn City. We already have enough crystals." After saying this, Li Chenglong placed the three cyan crystals and ten green crystals on the table. The cyan crystals were one from the food processing plant and two from the two wolf kings. The green crystals were collected during the battles of the past few days, especially yesterday's battle.
Liu Qingqing said happily, "So that means we can finally have a solid home." Li Chenglong replied, "That's true, but I don't want to use it in Qing'an Town. As everyone knows, Qing'an Town is short of resources and has no industry. If we establish the Dawn Base here, we'll have nothing and will have to search outside. So Zheng Yong and I think we should establish the base in Linhai City. Linhai City has a high-tech development zone that provides supplies to the military every year. We can use the advanced technology there to produce guns and ammunition. We can also let Academician An Qingyuan continue his research on the virus vaccine. Moreover, Linhai City is rich in resources, with no shortage of mineral and water resources. It's bordered by the Yellow River to the north and the sea to the east. We can be self-sufficient even if we just farm." Liu Qingqing nodded and sat down.
Li Chenglong continued, "That concludes our first topic today, the matter of the Dawn Base. From now on, our base will be renamed the Dawn Base, and once Dawn City is established, it will be directly called Dawn City. Now, let's move on to the second topic: military expansion. This morning, Yun Qian told us that our survivors have increased to three thousand, but our army, including the security force, only has 500 people. That would have been enough before, but now it's far from sufficient. Therefore, based on the decision of the Dawn Army's committee, we will expand our army and establish the Dawn Regiment, with a tentative maximum of 1550 people. The regiment commander is Li Chenglong, and the deputy regiment commanders are Yun Lan and Zheng Yong. The battalion commander is Wu Gang, and the deputy battalion commanders are..." "Battalion Commander: Wang Yousheng. Second Battalion Commander: Zheng Aiguo, Deputy Battalion Commander: Sun Youcai. Third Battalion Commander: Hao Dahai, Deputy Battalion Commander: Zhao Gang. Fourth Battalion Commander: Qian Guangming, Deputy Battalion Commander: Yang Xuelin. Logistics Support Battalion Commander: Yang Hu, Deputy Battalion Commander: Liu Cheng. Special Service Company Commander: Yun Lan, Deputy Company Commander: Li Chenglong. Except for the Special Service Company, which is set at 50 men, each of the other battalions will have 300 men. Our numbers are still very small. You must recruit from the survivors, explaining the advantages and disadvantages. We need both quantity and quality. I hope that when we go to Linhai City in a month, our forces will be a very strong fighting force." Upon hearing this, the battalion and deputy battalion commanders immediately stood up and saluted, indicating that they would not let everyone down.
Zheng Yong then stepped onto the stage again: "To prepare for future developments, we have decided to reorganize the personnel of the Dawn Base. For ease of reference, we will refer to it by our new name, Dawn City. Dawn City Lord: Li Chenglong. Chairman of the Dawn City Committee: Li Chenglong. Committee Members: Zheng Yong, Yun Lan, Yun Qian, Li Xue, Wu Suqiang, Liu Qingqing, Chen Anbang (the latter three are survivor representatives). Chairman of the Dawn Army Committee: Li Chenglong. Committee Members: Zheng Yong, Yun Lan, Wu Gang, Zheng Aiguo, Hao Dahai, Qian Guangming. The positions of personnel in the Logistics Department and Security Department will remain unchanged, but due to the gradual increase in the number of survivors, the number of personnel in these departments will also increase."
Li Chenglong stood up and said, "To facilitate our subsequent operations in Linhai City, I plan to go alone to Linhai City, which is 200 kilometers away from us." The meeting hall erupted in commotion, and Yun Lan glared at him angrily, saying, "As the deputy commander and a member of the Military Commission, I do not agree to your going alone." Li Chenglong gently waved his hand to quiet everyone down, "My first priority is to understand the situation. After all, Linhai City is quite far from us, and we can't just go there without knowing anything. What if there's a large zombie horde there? Secondly, I won't act rashly. I've now reached level five, and I can easily defeat ordinary level six enemies. Plus, I have a teleportation skill; if I can't win, I can simply run away. During my absence, please work together to rebuild our homeland."
Hearing Li Chenglong's words, everyone remained silent and went about their own business after the meeting. Only Yunlan and Li Xue stood there, looking dejected. Li Chenglong smiled and walked towards them. Yunlan immediately said, "We want to go with you."
Li Chenglong immediately refused: "No, you must stay here. Now that you've reached level 5, you're the strongest besides me. You must guard this place well for me and protect our home, okay?" Although Yun Lan was still a little unhappy, she knew the current situation of the base, so she nodded in agreement. Li Chenglong then turned to Li Xue and said, "After yesterday's battle, you're almost level 5 too. You must work hard. Long Ling said that level 5 will be a huge boost for Awakened Ones. When I come back, let me see what my sister will be like." Li Xue smiled shyly: "I definitely won't let my brother down. Just wait and see." After saying that, Li Xue went out to help Yun Qian with the logistics department's affairs. Li Chenglong and Yun Lan also left the venue.
After the two left, a faint figure suddenly appeared in a corner of the venue. A masked person in a black cloak took a few steps and then disappeared again, as if he had never been there.
Li Chenglong pulled Yunlan back to the dormitory, letting her put most of the food and other supplies from his storage space into hers. Yunlan probed her storage space with her spirit: "This space is half high-tech and half very close to nature, it's really amazing. Do you think we can grow all kinds of vegetables, fruits and grains directly in the storage space when it's upgraded later?" Li Chenglong smiled and replied, "I think we can, but the area is still too small, only about the size of two football fields, and half of the ground is covered with an unknown metal, and there are many places that look like metal warehouses." It took Li Chenglong and Yunlan quite a while to organize the things in their respective storage spaces. At this time, he took out the Demon-Slaying Bow and gave it to Yunlan: "Take this bow. It's level two now, and it can fire two arrows a day. It's very powerful and requires very little energy. Keep it on you just in case."
In fact, the Demon-Slaying Bow is not a limited weapon that is directly bound to the Awakened, like the Dragon Emperor Sword or the Dragon and Phoenix Spear. Instead, it is a non-bound weapon, like the big knife of Bald Brother Sun Xiao, which anyone can use.
Yunlan immediately said, "I don't want it. Your trip is fraught with danger, so having extra weapons is just in case." Li Chenglong smiled and said, "It's alright. It's you who makes me more worried. Just take it." He then forced it on Yunlan, who had no choice but to put it in her storage ring.
"Yunlan!"
"Ok?"
"I love you!"
Li Chenglong scooped Yunlan up and placed her on the bed, then kissed her. Yunlan, her face already flushed, returned the kiss. Just as they were reaching the height of their passion, the door was suddenly pushed open with a "bang," followed by the sound of it slamming shut. Li Chenglong and Yunlan had already separated. Li Chenglong immediately went outside and found Li Xue tiptoeing downstairs. Li Chenglong called out, and Li Xue quickly hurried down the stairs.
However, with his teleportation ability, Li Chenglong wouldn't let Li Xue escape. He used two teleports to catch her and then walked back to the dormitory. Yun Lan's face was still slightly flushed. Seeing Li Chenglong bring Li Xue in, she immediately went over and hugged Li Xue: "You little brat, you're already here, why are you leaving?" "Hahaha, sister-in-law, stop tickling me, I'm ticklish. It's all your fault for not locking the door, hahaha..."
After playing around for a while, Li Chenglong finally realized that Li Xue had come because Yun Qian wanted to know when Li Chenglong would leave and whether she should make some preparations for him. Since it was broad daylight, she walked in without knocking and only realized she was in big trouble when she saw Li Chenglong and Yun Lan hugging. She quickly ran out, but Li Chenglong caught her and brought her back.
Li Chenglong glanced at his watch: "I'll leave at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Don't prepare anything for me. I'll go by motorcycle. If all goes well, I can get there in a day. Don't come to see me off. Keep my departure time a secret." Li Xue nodded: "Okay, I'll go tell Sister Yunqian now. You guys continue. Don't forget to lock the door this time." With that, Li Xue rushed out with a mischievous smile, causing Yunlan's face to flush with embarrassment and annoyance once again.
The next morning at 6 a.m., Li Chenglong kissed Yunlan goodbye, left the room, and locked the door. As soon as he went downstairs, he saw Zheng Yong, Wu Gang, Yun Qian, Li Xue, and more than a dozen others already waiting in the courtyard. Li Chenglong smiled and shook hands with each of them to say goodbye. Then, he took out his motorcycle from his storage space, put on his helmet, and turned to the group, saying, "Just wait for my good news!" With that, he lowered the visor, stepped on the gas, and sped off.